Assignment 02 - Game Concept Devlog

Working Title:

Beam Beatdown.

Concept Statement:

In Beam Beatdown, you control anti-hero Glint in a 2D platformer to escape prison for a crime wrongly convicted and stop your nemesis Captain Ka-chow! Use his superpower laser beam to destroy whatever robots they throw against you and break free!

Genre / Category:

2D platformer. 2D as this is the scope for the unit and is a platformer as you control the player via moving left or right, or jumping, to get from point A to point B avoiding enemies and obstacles.

Concept Creation Process / Area and Influences:

The idea for Beam Breakdown is heavily influenced by one of my personal favourite game series, N (N Game, N+ and N++). Smooth controls with fun physics, a level that you can see at all times (no camera movement) with a diverse line up of enemies makes for a seriously fun and engaging game. The twist I came up with to differentiate Beam Breakdown with N was a way to fight back. Playing through the N series of games, you are left to run and dodge your way around the enemies to get to the end of the level. Adding back the fight in fight or flight, adding a weapon allows the player to choose how they would like to tackle the level, for better or worse. Weapon inspiration came from the superhero Cyclops from Marvel’s X-Men, with one of the enemies in N, the Laser Turret, reminding me of the superhero. This gave inspiration for Glint’s weapon, a laser beam to fight back and destroy the enemies. Bringing these two different forms of entertainment; games, and media, allowed for mashup game development.

Audience and Competitive Analysis:

As the genre is a 2D platformer, there can be a range of audiences that could be targeted depending on the art direction, story and whether the game caters to both the casual and / or competitive gamer. Starting with the art direction, visuals alone can make it very clear what the age demographic is, and to a lesser extent, what gender may be interested as well. For example, Super Mario targets an age demographic of around the 5 – 12-year-old mark as their visuals immediately pop, with vibrant characters and scenery and no gore to be found. In contrast, games such as Super Meat Boy that go the opposite way, targeting older teenagers / young adults with dark visuals, gore and blades, saws, and spikes instead of the cute enemies found in Super Mario.

Beam Beatdown will sit in the middle of what these two games target, with an age demographic of 13+ (young teenagers to young adults), as visually there will be no overly gritty art assets or over-the-top use of blood but won’t go the other extreme of having everything as vibrant as cute and possible.

As there is minimal story to this 2D platformer, the story has little impact on the age demographic outcome. For reference, any story material will not be over an M rating, similar in style to Marvel’s cinematic universe where movies typically fall around the 13 to 15+ rating, such as Iron Man. This allows for a large target demographic that could be interested in the game, as per Statista over half of the adult population aged 18 – 34 in the United States in 2018 watched one or more Marvel superhero films. This grants a very large target demographic of 13 – 34 that could have high interest in a superhero game. Continuing with statistics from Statista, a similar survey this time done in 2019 found that 61% of men said they were fans of superhero movies, compared to 53% of females. These are close numbers, so the game will be as inclusive as possible to both genders as superheroes do appeal to both.

Lastly, the game will appeal to a casual audience with how simple the controls are (move, jump and shoot) with stuff such as high scores to appeal to the more competitive.

Game Treatment and Concept Art:

For Beam Breakdown, you play as anti-hero Glint locked up for a crime you didn’t commit and are forced to break free to stop your nemesis, public superhero but actual villain, Captain Ka-chow, from overturning your town into a robot manufacturing plant. To escape, you’ll have to traverse through the prison and destroy countless robots of his design with your laser beam and stop Ka-chow before his plan comes into fruition.

Key features:

• Be able to move and jump your character as well as have his powerful laser beam at your disposal to traverse the level!
• Defeat a range of enemy robots that are desperately trying to stop you!
• Avoid other deadly obstacles that may lay on the path ahead!
• Beat all 3 levels to thwart Captain Ka-chow’s plans and save the day!
• Don’t take too long! You only have so long until the town’s population is turned into robots…
• The whole level is in camera view, meaning you can plan ahead for your escape!

The game has a futuristic setting, in that robots are widespread and much more capable than in today’s times. Physical labour jobs have slowly been replaced by a plethora of differing models of robots, which Glint is quite opposed to compared to Capt. Ka-chow’s public support. A corrupt government controlled by Capt. Ka-chow has made the public believe that those workers replaced by robots are living a life of luxury, still getting paid and then some, whilst not having to lift a finger, when in fact they have been disposed of.

The game world will predominantly be set in prison, so for the world lots of darker colours such as grey and black will be used to show off the bleak setting. The darker colours however will allow for the many types of lights to vibrantly bounce off the screen, such as Glint’s laser beam and the robot’s LEDs. Every enemy will have some sort of light to allow for easier tracking in the dark game environment as well as neon lights lighting up hallways, prison cells etc.

The game mechanics closely follow along to the key features of the game. Starting with the player controls, you will be able to control the player by moving them left or right (for example with the left and right arrow key) and jump from platform to platform (with for example the spacebar key). Your player’s movement will be affected by physics, meaning you cannot just come to a complete halt and go back the way you came in an instant, it will take time to slow down, stop, then turn around. The laser beam will also have a short delay before firing, meaning there is a charge-up time before it fires. This will make the player hopefully play a bit smarter and not as trigger happy, as there will be a delay until the next shot, giving the enemy an open window of attack. Next are the enemies of the game, the robots. Depending on the enemy type, some will have a pathfinder once spotting you, some will have a weapon of some sorts, such as a missile or laser beam that will lock on once spotting you etc. Any interaction with these enemies will result in a death, with the player being respawned. Robots also die in one hit after contacting your laser beam. Hazards are next, and are very similar to the robots, in that one hit is all it takes for a death. The two main hazards are quite different from each other, mines and fall damage. The former will explode and kill on impact and the latter will kill on impact from a certain height. These two hazards will be positioned around the level accordingly to give a higher challenge as well as form paths in the level. The ability for multiple levels will be used to create linear progression, as well having a way of increasing the challenge. This gives players levels that they will be able to beat with little to no practice, as well as levels that will need more planning and skill to complete. There will be a time mechanic featured in the game, where the timer is counting down, not up. The player will only have so long to complete the level, as when the timer hits 0, its game over. The timer continues from level to level, meaning if you waste time in level 1, you’ll have less time to complete 2 etc. The time will not be harsh, just something to keep the player on their toes. It also gives the possibility in the game development for multiple difficulties, with a harder difficulty having less time, if that can be fit in. Lastly from the key features in the camera view. This game’s camera is fixed, allowing for the player to see all the action that lays ahead, giving them the ability to plan out their move to detail. Other mechanics that will be featured will be music and sound effects to bring life to the game world.

These are two N game series examples that helped in the game concept development, in which the Beam Beatdown is heavily inspired off. Full game camera view is present as well as multiple platform traversals, laser beams and hazards. 

Finally, is the character inspiration. Clint was majorly inspired by the superhero Cyclops, from the X-Men franchise by Marvel. The laser beam is the main inspiration here, with a powerful red beam making for an attractive weapon that would allow for some beautiful lighting effects.

References:

Cyclops. Retrieved 25 August 2021, from https://x-men.fandom.com/wiki/Cyclops

Erdmann, K. (2020). X-Men's Cyclops Got His Powers Like Superman (But Weirder) (Cyclops Example 02). Retrieved 26 August 2021, from https://screenrant.com/xmen-cyclops-eye-powers-superman/

Kelleher, L. (2014). X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse review — Kelleher Bros (Cyclops Example 01). Retrieved 27 August 2021, from https://www.kelleherbros.com/blog/2014/11/20/x-men-mutant-apocalypse-review

Schurwan, T. (2017). N++ Review | GameGrin (N++ Example 02). Retrieved 26 August 2021, from https://www.gamegrin.com/reviews/n-review/

Superhero movie fans in the U.S. by gender 2019 | Statista. (2019). Retrieved 27 August 2021, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/979251/superhero-film-fans-us-by-gender/

Tyrer, B. (2015). N++ review (N++ Example 01. Retrieved 26 August 2021, from https://www.gamesradar.com/n-plus-plus-review/

Viewership of Marvel superhero movies by age group in the U.S. 2018 | Statista. (2018). Retrieved 26 August 2021, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/807367/marvel-movie-viewership-age/